Well, I filmed this great video explaining my reasoning behind boxing and wrestling/judo as good starting points for beginner martial artists, and it’s too big to upload on Vimeo.
I’ll try to summarize the points below:
There are three types of “hobbyists”. The first is people who just want to train martial arts for fun and/or fitness, and aren’t particularly interested in progressing a skill. In that case, train whatever you want. I’d suggest whatever’s cheapest and closest to you.
The second are people interested in a particular style, possibly for competing. In that case, you obviously want to train whatever specific style you have in mind.
The third — and the ones I’ll be addressing — are those who want to start martial arts but don’t know where to begin. They have and interest in progressing and improving, and are usually mindful of self-defence.
Boxing is a great starting point because all you have to worry about is your hands. The absolute basics are the jab, cross, hook and uppercut, which can be taught on the first day, and from there your progression becomes stringing them together, footwork, reading your opponent, and defence/blocking.
Wrestling and judo are great as a starting point for beginners for grappling because you’re only concerned with standing on your own two feet, and if you do hit the ground, concerned with maintaining the top position. If I was teaching a beginner, I’d worry about grip stripping, falling and rolling properly (HUGELY important for ANYONE to know) and one or two throws/takedowns that we’d drill from a multitude of scenarios so they can be pulled off as frequently as possible.
Progression for beginners — and anyone, for that matter — isn’t teaching them more and more stuff, progression is the advancement of skill and ability. In my teaching experience, students feel like they’re progressing more when they’re able to properly execute fewer techniques with greater efficiency. Once that base has been established and competency is there, you slowly add in more and more skills.
BJJ, on the other hand, has a lot more to worry about from the get go. The four main positions I’d want a beginner to know are front mount, back mount, side mount, and guard. You’re initially going to need to know how to maintain those positions. You’d also need to know how to escape those positions. Then, to keep things interesting, you’re going to need to know at least one submission from each position, and THEN know defence for those submissions (if you know how to defend a submission, you’ll better understand what flaws to be aware of when applying that submission). That’s 16 techniques, right off the bat, I’d want a beginner to know.
Like I said, progression isn’t the accumulation of a bunch of techniques, it’s the improvement on what you already know. Trying to simultaneously improve on 16 techniques versus 1 or 2 throws and grip stripping is going to take waaaaay longer and can lead to student frustration. You might say, “Well just teach them one position at a time!” Sure, I could do that, and usually do, eg: one class spent just on everything to do with the front mount (drills, scenarios, etc), then side mount the next, etc etc. However, it then becomes a long time before we come back around to those previous skills. Or, if we train them simultaneously, they improve much slower. There’s no real way to progress quickly, aside from dedicating a big chunk of time to it.
One reason that judoka say BJJ is easy to pick up on is because they already have a “martial arts mind” because of their previous experience. It was the same thing with me moving from hapkido to BJJ; since hapkido is built from Japanese ju-jitsu, and BJJ is from judo which is from Japanese JJ, it was intuitive to pick up on. For someone with NO grappling background, the concepts are going to take longer to ingrain, especially when there’s so much of it.
Lastly, for self-defence purposes, I do NOT want someone hanging out on the ground. There’s too many things that can go wrong (less mobile, harder to keep track of surroundings, potential for injury due to environment, etc). Wrestling and judo are great for teaching people to grind like hell for that top dominant position, which is will lend itself to greater safety when dealing with a threat.
All that to say, I love BJJ. It’s a fantastic art, and an amazing compliment to judo or wrestling. I just believe there’s less for a beginner to pick up on with a standing art at first, letting them build a base, before transitioning into something else.
